Jack took a long look at his speedometer before slowing down: 73 in a 55 zone. Fourth time in as many months. How could a guy get caught so often?

When his car had slowed to 10 miles an hour, Jack pulled over, but only partially. Let the cop worry about the potential traffic hazard. Maybe some other car will tweak his backside with a mirror. The cop was stepping out of his car, the big pad in hand.

Bob? Bob from Church? Jack sunk farther into his trench coat. This was worse than the coming ticket. A cop catching a guy from his own church. A guy who happened to be a little eager to get home after a long day at the office. A guy he was about to play golf with tomorrow.

Jumping out of the car, he approached a man he saw every Sunday, a man he'd never seen in uniform.

"Hi, Bob. Fancy meeting you like this."
"Hello, Jack." No smile.
"Guess you caught me red-handed in a rush to see my wife and kids."
"Yeah, I guess." Bob seemed uncertain. Good.
"I've seen some long days at the office lately. I'm afraid I bent the rules a bit -just this once."
Jack toed at a pebble on the pavement. "Diane said something about roast beef and potatoes tonight. Know what I mean?" "I know what you mean. I also know that you have a reputation in our precinct " Ouch. This was not going in the right direction. Time to change tactics.

"What'd you clock me at?"
"Seventy. Would you sit back in your car please?"
"Now wait a minute here, Bob. I checked as soon as saw you. I was barely nudging 65." The lie seemed to come easier with every ticket.
"Please, Jack, in the car"

Flustered, Jack hunched himself through the still-open door. Slamming it shut, he stared at the dashboard. He was in no rush to open the window.
The minutes ticked by. Bob scribbled away on the pad.

Why hadn't he asked for a driver's license?

Whatever the reason, it would be a month of Sundays before Jack ever sat near this cop again. A tap on the door jerked his head to the left. There was Bob, a folded paper in hand Jack rolled down the window a mere two inches, just enough room for Bob to pass him the slip.
"Thanks." Jack could not quite keep the sneer out of his voice.

Bob returned to his police car without a word. Jack watched his retreat in the mirror. Jack unfolded the sheet of paper. How much was this one going to cost?

Wait a minute. What was this? Some kind of joke?

Certainly not a ticket. Jack began to read:
"Dear Jack, Once upon a time I had a daughter. She was six when killed by a car. You guessed it- a speeding driver. A fine and three months in jail, and the man was free. Free to hug his daughters, all three of them. I only had one, and I'm going to have to wait until Heaven before I can ever hug her again.
A thousand times I've tried to forgive that man. A thousand times I thought I had. Maybe I did, but I need to do it again. Even now. Pray for me. And be careful, Jack, my son is all I have left."

"Bob"

Jack turned around in time to see Bob's car pull away and head down the road. Jack watched until it disappeared. A full 15 minutes later, he too, pulled away and drove slowly home, praying for forgiveness and hugging a surprised wife and kids when he arrived.

Life is precious. Handle with care. This is an important message; please pass it along to your friends. Drive safely and carefully. Remember, cars are not the only things recalled by their maker.

.....I hate seeings stories like this, whether this particular story is true or not. You know it happens.

I speed, I like cars, I like fast cars, I like to take things to the edge in a car. Then stories like this come to me, in E-Mails, in posts like this, newsletters, news, etc etc. And it always kills me because when I am on the road I always forget.

I don't do drugs, I don't drink and drive, I rarely drink period, I don't get overly angry and threaten peoples lives. Basically I don't do things that I myself consider irresponsible and a danger to others. Except speeding. And I am ashamed and always am when I see these type of stories, it's no different than all the things I named above.

Think I'll put a message on my CD player display that says, "Slow down", as a reminder. And take the radar detector off my dashboard...

Not saying this as a joke either. These things are bad, and unless you're cold and heartless, which some are. Having something like the implied incident happen is something beyond my own comprehension of grief.

"Back in the old days we had to run around Shady Swashbuckler in cloth armor, barefooted, being trained both ways, to max our Sense Heading."

In other parts of the world they don't have severe restrictions on the speed you are allowed to travel. It has seriously hindered my respect for our speed restrictions in my home Nation - the United States of America.

Killing peeps in auto accidents is tragic. Don't get me wrong. But I don't know if the "right" answer is our current system of having restrictive speed limits - but it is the system we have.

Agreed Serano. The Autobon(sp?) For those that don't know. This is a "freeway, highway, M-Way etc etc... That has no speed restriction. And also has the LEAST auto accidents out of any of the previous mentioned. Now this is hearsay on my part but I can damn well believe it.

Many restrictions are the cause of accidents in general.

Example: You have a street in a neighborhood, speed limit is 20mph, which is the neighborhood limit where I live. The people in this area KNOW the speed limit. Think to themselves that drivers know this as well, which they do unless you're a moron, so assume that people are going to follow this restriction and so have their kids play frequently in the street thinking the speed limit is low enough that a car can stop in time to not cause injury to their child if such a situation were to happen, which is moronic in it's own right because we all know that people don't follow these restrictions.

So, you have the kids playing in this supposedly "safe street", which btw no street is safe for your damn child to play in!! And then you have a driver like me, coming down this street, not paying attention to the speed limit, or just not caring or not thinking or what the hell ever. Kid runs out in the middle of the street behind a car....Dead kid. Fault is the drivers. Fault is the parents. Fault is the restriction made, making people falsely believe in something that in all reality doesn't exactly exist. In this case, that being the "Speed Limit".

If the speed limit in that neighborhood was 50mph. Do you think the parents are going to have their kids playing out on the street? Proooobably not =P.

But facts are facts and we or at least I, live in the U.S.A. where there are speed limits and many laws and many restrictions and I am bound to them just as anyone else and whether I believe in them or not I must follow them for the safety of myself and others, because I myself am not going to change them, many people together can't even change them.
So speeding here = bad news and causes bad things, even though everyone does it or has done it or will do it =\

"Back in the old days we had to run around Shady Swashbuckler in cloth armor, barefooted, being trained both ways, to max our Sense Heading."

I admit I have sped from time to time. But messages like this help remind me why we do have laws to help slow us down.
I am a mother of 3 children which I Love dearly.
If this message makes you feel ashamed then you should be ashamed of yourself. DING DING DING, has the lightbulb come on yet, your subconsious is screaming at you, you might want to listen.

Kids wander in the streets from time to time, that is just them being kids. I do not send mykids outside to go play in the street, but when their ball or whatever rolls out there they do go after it. I would hate to think that you were driving by my house and because you felt like speeding one day I loose my kid.

I dont understand why people need to drive super freakin fast anyway. I think its good to have speed restrictions, because it creates an expected flow of traffic. Driving on the roads, freeways and highways is not an auto race. Its transportation, not a race. Its getting to work, getting groceries home, picking up your kids. It is not about who can get there faster. There are places where you can do those things, like race your hot rod race car. I have a friend who owns one of those dodge viper things. He goes out to a local race track on weekends, and they have car race lessons for beginners, etc (maybe there is a name for this).

Welcome to the Boom Boom Room. Remeber, there is no sex in the Champagne room.

It is NOT true that the auto-ban is fair game for every speed, it used to be until they noticed, while there were a small percentage fewer accidents, the percentage of FATAL accidents was extremely high. If I remember right fatal accidents were in the 80'ish percentile. There are som SMALL stretches of the auto-ban that are still restriction free but they are in extremely unpopulated areas where there are at least 6 lanes and a large median between each direction.

It took me awhile to learn to slow down too, until i did an experiment, I would speed my ass off to different destinations and time the trip, then I would obey all traffic laws on the same trip and I discovered, to my surprise because I was SURE that speeding got me there WAY faster!, that the difference in travel time was rarely more than a few minutes, most under 3 minutes.

I now usually (95%+) stay within 5mph of the posted speed limit and NEVER speed through residential areas (anywhere there is a sidewalk or houses open to the street.

Just some food for thought, like I said, I had to have it proven to me, by me.

I speed, mostly on the interstates, rarely on the side roads, never in neighborhoods.

How much I speed also depends on what I am driving, and the traffic situation. I do not speed as much driving my wife's minivan, as I do driving my Camaro. Why? One of them brakes, accelerates, and handles far better than the other.

Nothing bothers me more than seeing people in pickups, minivans and SUV's on my ass on the expressway when I am in my car. I know if something happens where I have to jam on my brakes, joe pickup is gonna slam into me because he doesn't know how to drive his vehicle safely.

People in these 5000lb monster vehicles that are 6+ feet tall think they can follow along in traffic like they are driving a Corvette. I soooooo wish US interstates would have car only lanes.

Numbers are infinite, the number one is not a one or just One, it'ss a part of a whole. No, Speed Limits are not causes of accidents of course not, having no speed limits is not going to stop the cause of accidents or deaths because of cars. I was merely going on from something Serano said. If anyone had read my actual post above, I would hope not to get burned on anything.

I think I made myself to sound like some evil, crazed speed demon however. I speed but what I meant by that was 5-10 miles over Speed Limits lol. To me that's still speeding lol.

And in the example I gave of the 20mph neighborhood. That wasn't me dammit. I am extremely aware of children and people period, walking, playing, roaming those areas that SHOULD be safe. No matter what car I am driving at the time.

The Times I speed are basically exactly when Bilnick said he speeds. On interstates and highways and the freeway where I live, where I go 15-30 miles over the speed limit. Dangerous period.

I didn't exactly post what I said to get burnt or condemned, though I don't feel that way yet =P. But for reassurance I want to say that.

The discussion of speed limits and deaths caused by cars, drunks, speeding, restrictions etc... Could go on and on.

Besides all you people speed, and speeding doesn't cause accidents. It's stupid people who don't pay attention who cause the accidents, whether it's the one who is speeding or the "other(s)".

Pay attention, follow the laws and you're likely never to be in an accident.

My father was a drag racer back in his hay-day, he won numerous trophies and is proud of his background in amateur racing and drag racing.....Now, he is probably the most responsible, careful driver I have ever known and because of it, he has not been in a single accident in his entire life on the regular road other than when some drunk driver hit him head on about 6 years ago. And that right there is proof that no matter how safe you are, there's always someone else that isn't going to be, and someone can get hurt. So you can live your life in fear, or you can live your damn life while still being mindful of others lives as well.

"Back in the old days we had to run around Shady Swashbuckler in cloth armor, barefooted, being trained both ways, to max our Sense Heading."

Besides all you people speed, and speeding doesn't cause accidents. It's stupid people who don't pay attention who cause the accidents, whether it's the one who is speeding or the "other(s)".

Well said, the only flaw in that statement is even if you aren't the one who "caused" the accident and were just the one speeding, there may have been a good chance of avoiding the accident all together if you hadn't been going too fast!

RL example: Last month my family and I were coming home from a Brahma's hockey game, it was night, and raining. The posted speed limit is 60mph on I-20 in Fort worth. Since it was raining REALLY hard I was only doing about 45-50mph, in the middle lane of a 3 lane road, left lane was clear ahead and behind(along with most others on the road, visiblity was pretty bad) I could see headlights approaching fast from behind and a white SUV sped by me on the left. IMMEDIATELY after passing me (couldn't have been more than 1 or 2 car lengths) the SUV hydroplaned, slammed on their brakes, and proceeded to spin 4-5 times accross all three lanes of traffic. I am certain that if I had been even doing the speed limit things would have gone very wrong very quickly.

I realize there were adverse weather conditions in this story but the point is that because I was not going too fast it didn't matter that some other moron was stupid. I was able to control my vehicle and avoid an accident all together. The big question should be will it make you feel any better while you are in the hospital that even though you were speeding it was the guy who changed lanes in front of you and caused the accident?

Another example, when I cross a street or parking lot as a pedestrian, I always stop and wave cars to go ahead of me.

Why would you do that, don't you know pedestrians have the right of way?

I do know pedestrians have the right of way, however, I don't think it would make me feel any better, if I were hit by a car, that I had the right of way.

I did misunderstand your post a bit Xan, and I wasn't flaming you personally, just your statement!

These things really do make me shuddery though. Would never want to be in a situation where I was the cause of a death.

Just in my own car accident not too long ago. I wasn't even the cause of it and was just coming home in rush hour traffic, down one of the busy roads, you know those roads where cars have to buzz out of the side streets to even get a chance to get into through-traffic because it's constant flowing, otherwise they'de be there forever. Well a guy did this, but he picked the wrong time to fly out in between cars. And I hit him going 40 on his driver side wheel. If he had of just going a bit faster, or I had of slammed on the breaks just a bit sooner and he got just 2 or 3 more feet farther, I would have hit him right in the drivers side door...He would be dead right now, as he was only driving a little 84' mitsushitty pick-up.

As it happend though. I went to the hospital and am still suffering the injuries while he walked out of his vehicle right then and there .

"Back in the old days we had to run around Shady Swashbuckler in cloth armor, barefooted, being trained both ways, to max our Sense Heading."

I hate it when the person with right of way either in a vehicle or a pedistrian waves me by. PEEPS -- KNOW WHEN YOu have the right of way and excersize it. folks wanting other peeps to go against right of way only causes accidents.

Like at a four way and 2 cars come to the intersection at the same time facing each other and one wants to make a left - but the car that SHOULD go first is trying ot wave them to make the left in front of them . GOD I hate that. peeps excersize your right of way!

THat is why Italian drives - while considered crazy by the rest of the world are pretty good drivers. THEY know - no one will yield and they work within that system. VERY offencive driving - but you know EXACTLY what the other driver will do at all times- whatever benifits them and doesn't scratch their paint.

Serano wrote:PEEPS -- KNOW WHEN YOu have the right of way and excersize it.

There-in lies the rub, it has been my experience that most people don't know, or don't care who actually has the right of way.

VERY offencive driving

I agree that this would make life easier and probably safer on the roads, however offensive driving REQUIRES that people actually pay attention to whats going on on the road, which would mean no cell phone talking, no shaving/applying make-up while driving, no newspaper reading while doing 80mph down the free-way, no searching through the glove box for the next CD you want to hear, just to name a few of the things you see on the roads.

I would also like to see my dog crap out gold brikks...errr bricks. LOL

If you speed in my neighborhood and I or any of my neighbors are out the last thing you will have to worry about is a ticket. When I was a kid I sped and of course considered myself invincible, and that I would never get in an accident. To this day I have only been in 2 accidents and both were while severely intoxicated. ( I flipped a bronco on alligator alley, and ran a gt across 4 lanes of highway into a house on the opposite side of the road.) As I grow and mature I realize that speeding where children play is just stupid, childish, immature and irresponsible. I will push it on the highway, and stay on the left. I also have respect for people that want to obey the law (yes it is a law like it or not) or people that do not feel confident enough for what ever reason (age, time, tired etc) to go above the speed limit. I do not own the road, I share it with thousands of others. They can and have the right to use it as they want to within the boundaries of the law.
Yet there is less of a chance to hurt others on a highway where you have a clear shot, than in a neighborhood where children play. Before anyone begins to spout about watching your kids blah blah blah, get a kid or three. They forget, they are spontaneous, and they make mistakes, alot of them. However in a neighborhood is not the only place you can get into an accident and hurt children, they die and are hurt on the highway, as well because of carelessness and irresponsible bahavior all the time. Not just children many people do period. In my city there are little bouquets tied to trees and siderails on most streets; testaments to teenagers who have died racing, or just plain driving, around. A car can easily be transformed into a weapon and a weapon in the hands of an irresponsible person is just a problem waiting to happen.
The autobahn is also in a country with very expensive and stringent drivers license laws. It costs you about 1500+ to even get a license, and you have to go through a major pain in the ass to get it. Plus I think you have be an adult to acquire one. So less knuckleheads are on the road to begin with. The autobahn is a perfectly maintained highway. The autobahn has strict rules for driving on it and if caught violating a rule you can lose your priviledge to drive for life. Or at the least it will be very expensive to drive again. Don't mistake no speed limit for no reality, The autobahn has many stretches where you can only go about 80, and others where its about 60.
Highways are rated depending on their construction for the speeds that users will be travelling at.
But whatever. I really don't care what your philosophies and want to dos so you call should bes are. If you drive unsafely in my neighborhood you will get reamed.